I just registered to this forum and brought this post back to life given that I just discovered the same thing is happening to me. I did a road trip to Houston with my wife and kids (kids ages are 6, 4 and <1). We stayed two nights at the Holiday Inn Express I-10 Energy Corridor in Houston. I am a GOLD IHG Rewards member (normally travel a lot for business in Mexico and Latin America). I paid that stay with points.
The issue is that even while I paid with points I just found a charge of $261.97 USD to my credit card. I thought it was an error, given that I had paid with points. So I emailed the hotel, and I just got a response from the management. His response is the following:
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Thank you for your email. The charges were not for accommodation as you were staying on your rewards nights.
The charges were for all the linen that was damaged. I have attached the pictures for you to view. The housekeepers upon cleaning the rooms have to notify management if any of the linen in the rooms gets damaged and we then take pictures to verify the damage. There were marks on the linen made with color markers and as we could not use the linen again we had to therefore charge you for them.
Please feel free to contact us if you need any further information.
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I did not notice the damages before leaving the hotel room, but honestly, I saw the 4 years old kid playing with a marker pen within the room. I accept that there is a very strong chance (I would even say I am pretty sure) that my kid made the damages.
The hotel never notified me. It has been a month since we left the room. I just saw the charge today (although they made the charge the same day I left).
However, I also believe the hotel management is behaving greedy on this. I would be surprised if the marks could not be removed. And even if the bed linen is completely destroyed, I am not sure that $261.97 USD is a legitimate charge for replacing. I was planning on going polite with the hotel manager, and explaining that I am willing to cover a fair cost, but that $261.97 USD is excessive, but after reading this post, I am not sure I should cover any cost at all.
What do you think is fair in this case? Does bed linen replacement really costs $261.97 USD?
I am uploading the photos here for you to have an idea of the damage. The photos are:
